在群支持系统研究中对群体的关注

Focusing on the Group in Group Support System Research

近几年小群体方面的研究及小群体理论获得了很大的发展,但是大多数的群支持系统方面的研究依旧没有考虑小群体理论。在此,我们对比了小群体理论的丰富与大多数群支持系统实验研究中理论的缺乏。首先研究了小群体理论的现状,并通过分析最近五年发表的群支持系统方面的研究成果,将其与该理论在群支持系统中的应用现状做了对比。在文章的下一部分,将会讨论把小群体理论作为群支持系统研究的基础会给群支持系统研究带来的帮助。对于缺乏小群体理论作为基础的研究,也提出了一个调整的建议:放弃使用"群支持系统"这个术语,并找到一个能更好地描述之前群支持系统研究工作的术语,比如使用电子会议系统作为支持会议系统的新术语。

Most group support systems（GSS） research is conducted without regard to theories of small groups,even as small group research and the development of small group theory have flourished in recent years.Here we contrast the richness of small group theory with the theoretical poverty of most experimental group support systems research.We look first at the state of small group theory,contrasting it with the state of theory in GSS work,using GSS studies published in a recent five year span as examples.Looking to small group theory as the basis for GSS research would add a great deal to GSS work,the topic of the next section in the paper.Absent a reliance on small group theory,however,we propose an alternative approach：Drop the GSS term altogether and return to a term that better describes what GSS research has always been about,supporting meetings,as captured in the phrase Electronic Meeting Systems.